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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Ornament Hanger How-To

Some of you may have seen ornament or suncatcher hangers and said, I can do that! Some
of you may have seen them and said, How do I do that? This tutorial is
for you. This is for a simple ornament hanger you can make all by
yourself with a few tools and wire!

Tools:

Ruler
Wire Cutter
Round Nose Pliers
Wrap-N-Tap pliers (large)

Supplies:

18 gauge silver-filled or silver-plated wire

1.
Start by flush cutting a 3" piece of wire with your wire cutters.
Notice I used the ever-popular dinosaur ruler we got in a shoe-store
many moons ago!

2. Using the round nose pliers, place your wire
1/3 of the way down the plier and make a loop. If you are making lots
of hangers, you may want to use a sharpie to mark the place where you
want to wrap the wire if you want them all uniform in size.

3. Finish the loop all the way.

4.
Place the loop in the Wrap-N-Tap plier on the first round. If you
want larger loops for your hanger, you should cut a larger piece of
wire. Make sure the loop is secure in the plier and in the direction
you want it to go!

5.
Using your thumb, wrap the wire around the loop of the Wrap-N-Tap
plier all the way. Remove it from the plier, and you will have a hook
with a loop on one end at this point.

6. Using the bottom 1/3 of your round-nose pliers, make another loop, which will be bigger than the first loop.

7.
Finish shaping if you need to. At this point, you can work harden
with a mallet if you like. I prefer to tumble mine
because in addition to hardening the silver, it makes it all nice and
shiny!!!

You can also embellish them with wire and beads! Here, I used thin gauge copper wire and blue seed beads.

Below is an ornament I made with one of my baroque lampwork beads, bronze wire, and a chandellier part!

This is a suncatcher I made with a set of three baroque beads and a vintage chandellier crystal.

I can think of many other ways you can embellish the hanger, or add interest to the wire, can you?